Family Meal, Spider Style

Found mum and babies lurking in the branches of a tree in my garden - All sharing a juicy fly

I have no idea what type of spider she is, so if anyone knows......

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/56265770@N02/5​371672865/

Great catch. I wonder if the babies are actually old enough to eat yet. I ran across some images in another forum of some baby spiders that had hatched and were with the mother, but their eyes had not even developed fully yet. Didn't ask about mouth parts, but these might not be able to bite through the chitin of a fly.

nice shot...

Looks like it could belong to the Theridiidae family, morphology looks Latrodectus like, although only L. hasselti seems to be known from Australia, and that is not one... messy webbing also could point in that family direction.

The babies look independant, I believe they were feeding. 1st instars spiders have a "larval" look to them, these look like at least 2nd instars, fully fonctional spiderlings.

Also, even at 1st instars, it has been documented that some will feed on their siblings, even if they are not supposed to eat yet!

Martin

Very nice shot...what a loving family. She's a great mom

LOvely and interesting capture !
Brian v.

Great find, and great shot.

very nice shot